Nearly every morning, 11-year-old Margaret Walling video chats
with her math class at HackettstownMiddle
School. It's a minor return to normalcy
in a schedule that has been disrupted by illness.

"That way she's still able to interact with her friends at school,"
said her mother, Donna Walling.

The sixth-grader finished her first set of treatments last week for a brain tumor that doctors discovered in November. Now, community members have rallied around "Smiles for
Margaret," a campaign that local businesses, schools and residents have taken up
to support her.

A number
of fundraisers have been held over the last two months -- a pancake
breakfast, a jazzercise class and collection boxes at local businesses -- and
more are planned for later this month.

"They have done so much work that has been a godsend," Donna
Walling said of the community's fundraising efforts. "Everybody has just been great."

Two teachers from the
middle school have volunteered to home school Margaret, and she video chats with her
math class in the mornings. She'll have the next month or so off before continuing treatment.

"It's just, you do what you have to do, and get through it," her
mother said. "She's tired of being tired. But she's got a good sense of humor."

Teachers and family members describe Margaret as a hardworking student and a horse
lover. It's her smile, however, that has inspired a series of
efforts to raise money for her family.

Hackettstown police will face off against seventh- and eighth-grade students and middle school faculty Friday in
basketball games dubbed Shooting for Safety.

This is the department's fifth annual game,
and all proceeds will be given to the Walling family, according to police Sgt.
Darren Tynan. Each year the game is held to support a cause, Tynan said, and is
meant to provide a link between the police and the community.

He said it
provides a good opportunity for the police officers to hang out with students.

"It shows that we're actually people too," Tynan said.

Students at the town's two elementary schools held a Hats on
Day last month to benefit Walling in which students and staff donated a dollar to
wear a hat to school.

Hatchery Hill Elementary School teacher Julie Borcherding,
who taught Margaret Walling in the third
grade, has been meeting with members of
the schools and the community to plan more events. She said that people are
eager to help.

"We're a very small district, so everybody seems to know
everybody," Borcherding said. "It's just neat to see how the whole community is coming
together for this."

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IF YOU GO

Shooting for Safety, police basketball games to raise money for cancer-stricken Hackettstown Middle School student Margaret Walling, is 6:30 p.m. Friday at the new Hackettstown High School gym, 701 Warren St.

Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children, and free to children 5 and younger. Tickets are available at the door.